Commit to reducing incarceration and racial disparities

In 2019, there were more than 54,700 people in county jails throughout the state. Most were awaiting trial, many in jail only because they could not afford bail. Many others were held on technical violations of probation. Still others were minors facing adult charges, as state law requires judges to send such juveniles to adult jail.

If elected Sheriff, you could adopt policies and procedures to directly reduce our jail population. Your position in the community will also give you influence over policies adopted locally and in Tallahassee.

• Do you commit to reducing the local incarcerated population?

• Making a specific commitment to decarceration is also a pledge to constituents that you are willing to be held accountable for doing your part to end mass incarceration. What percent reduction you think is achievable and why?

• What is your plan to reduce the incarceration rate in our county? 

Racial disparities continue to plague Florida’s justice system. Despite Black people representing only 18% of Florida’s population, they represented 34% of arrests in 2018. They are arrested twice as often as their white neighbors, and Black youth are arrested nearly five times as often as their white peers. Such disparities continue throughout the system.

• Will you track officer arrest and incident data to identify disparities and needed training?

• What is your plan to reduce racial disparities in our county?

Reduce unnecessary arrests: 

Your deputies have the power to decide who goes to jail and who can be processed without holding. 

Pre-arrest diversion programs for both juveniles and adults aim to reduce the financial and social costs of prosecution. However, sheriff’s deputies often maintain discretion to warn, issue a civil citation or notice to appear or to arrest. Although the rationale for this is based in public safety, in practice unconscious bias and interpersonal relations often impact this discretion more than safety considerations.

• Will you adopt a policy establishing that officers default to civil citations or issuing notices to appear in lieu of arrest in all eligible cases, with justification and review required for arrests?

• Will you work with the State Attorney to expand diversion programs?

• Will you institute a regular training program that includes nonviolent communication, de-escalation tactics, and stress management?

As policy around medical and recreational marijuana evolves, injustices mount when poor people and people of color are continuously policed and arrested while wealthy and white people can partake in, and even profit from, the same activities. Many Florida jurisdictions have adopted minimum thresholds for enforcement, which range from 3 grams (the minimum required for effective testing) to 20 grams.

• Will you adopt a policy that limits marijuana enforcement to cases with at least 3 grams of marijuana and requires officers to issue citations for all eligible cases that do meet the threshold?

While arrests of juveniles in the community continued to fall in 2018-19, arrests in schools increased. We saw kids as young as 6 years old arrested at school for misbehaving. These arrests forever impact a young person’s life, reducing their likelihood of graduating high school and increasing the likelihood they will be involved with the criminal justice system for years to come.

• Will you adopt a policy for deputies to not intervene in student behavior at schools unless there is an immediate threat to safety?

• Will you require regular training on de-escalation tactics designed for use with juveniles, restorative justice, and child and adolescent development?

A trap leading many poor people to the criminal justice system is our state’s use of suspension of drivers’ licenses to punish those who fail to pay court fees or commit low-level offenses unrelated to driving. Many must continue driving when their licenses are suspended in order to provide for their families. This often leads to unnecessary arrests. 

• Will you adopt a policy de-prioritizing enforcement of driving on a suspended license that was suspended for failure to pay debts?

Reduce unnecessary incarceration:

Most people in jail are awaiting trial, many can’t afford the bail necessary to leave. In many cases, taxpayers spend more holding these people than the cost of bail. Cash bail harms poor people and does nothing to protect the community. Rich defendants pay and are released. Poor defendants charged with the same offense,  remain locked up solely because they cannot afford to pay. This results in more lost jobs, more disrupted families, and more crime.

• Will you work with the State Attorney, Public Defender and Chief Judge to eliminate bail for misdemeanor offenses in the convenience bond schedule.

Rehabilitation Credits

Today, many in jail and prison have months or years left to serve with no ability or incentive to engage in programs to turn their lives around and improve their chances of success when they return to their communities. It is critical that we increase and incentivize rehabilitative programming (educational, vocational, and drug addiction treatment) in our prison and jails so that individuals will be able to successfully contribute to society once released. Our current gain-time statute prevents increasing rehabilitation credits that can be applied toward one’s sentence and thus takes away all hope for those incarcerated and robs prisons and jails of an effective behavior management tool.

• Will you support legislation to increase the amount of rehabilitation credit available to those who participate in rehabilitative programs and exhibit model behavior?

Build Trust with Immigrant Communities

In recent years, Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., have increasingly pushed local governments to shoulder the burden of the federal government’s failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform. In 2019, the Florida Legislature passed SB 168, which restricted local control of decisions on how law enforcement officers interact with their communities and whether local law enforcement diverts time and resources away from public safety and local policing in order to address civil immigration matters. 

Studies have shown that local law enforcement performing ICE functions undermines effective law enforcement. Along with diverting time and resources away from local public safety needs, it damages relationships between the law enforcement and local immigrant communities, making it harder for immigrants, regardless of status, to report crimes, to cooperate with law enforcement, or to seek protection.

It also inserts officers into a national debate over the ethics of separating families, disrupting the local economy, and exposes them to the risks of profiling. All of this detracts from their duty to protect the public and enforce the law.

• Will you commit to advocating against any efforts to join the Warrant Service Officer program or any any 287g agreement that would allow your deputies to act as ICE officers?

• Will you commit to decline ICE detainer requests for individuals known by your office to be U.S. citizens?

• Will you support legislation to repeal SB168’s unfunded mandates on local government and usurping of local control? 

Let Florida Vote

Facilitate civic engagement by those in jail:

Each election, more than 50,000 people are in jail. Most are awaiting trial; not convicted of any crime. Many were eligible to vote, but need access to register to vote and to vote by mail while they are in jail.

• Will you negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the local Supervisor of Elections to administer voter registration and vote by mail in the jails?

• Will you invite the local Supervisor of Elections to visit the jail regularly to register eligible voters?

• Will you allow voter registration drives in the jail?